In his greetings to Indian President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Vladimir Putin noted that the passing year has been marked with an important anniversary, 70 years of diplomatic relations between Russia and India. Appreciating the outcome of bilateral contacts in 2017, the Russian President expressed confidence in further advancing the privileged strategic partnership between Russia and India even further in politics, trade, the economy, science, technology, culture and other areas in the upcoming year, and in expanding constructive cooperation within the UN, BRICS, the SCO and other multilateral bodies in the interests of solving current regional and global issues.